In conjunction with our central communications office and the MacArthur Foundation, Mizuko Ito (a faculty member in the area which I serve as Communications Director for) has released the following:
Read moreUCI researcher show time spent online is important for young people’s development
Teens who are into texting, gaming and “geeking out” are not wasting their time, according to results from the most extensive U.S. study on young people and their use of digital media. Instead, the study shows that when America’s youth go online, they are developing important life skills that adults often are hard-pressed to appreciate.
“There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy,” said Mizuko Ito, UC Irvine researcher with joint appointments in information and computer science and humanities and lead author on the study. “But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”
Released Thursday, Nov. 20, the study suggests that parents should help facilitate their teens’ online participation and that educators could benefit from creative classroom experimentation with digital media.